Clik here to view.
From Portraits to Selfies: The Impact of Pictures Through Time
Daguerrotype of Louis Daguerre himself in 1843 by Jean-Baptiste Sabatier-Blot. Photo courtesy Wikipedia. Capturing and viewing still images has changed the way humans look at and understand the world...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Racetrack Playa: Turtles Race Faster Than These Famed Stones!
A distant view of Racetrack Playa. Photo by Daniel Mayer. Wikipedia. From a far glance, the flat, dry surface of Racetrack Playa, in Death Valley, California, invites you to perceive a cloudy lake....
View ArticleClik here to view.
UCSC’s Cowell Lime Works Historic District: Chinese Cooks Say No to Whitewash
Today the Cook House is home to the UCSC Admissions Office. Photo Courtesy Friends of the Cowell Limeworks Historic District. The main entrance to the University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC) is...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Is it the Tropics or is it Santa Cruz?
The ocean in front of Lighthouse Point, Santa Cruz July 21, 2015. Photo © Laura Beach, instagram @laurabeach. Gazing over the waters of Monterey Bay this week, you would be forgiven if you thought you...
View ArticleClik here to view.
California’s Migrant Mother: An Unwilling Icon
“She has all the suffering of mankind in her but all of the perseverance too. A restraint and a strange courage. You can see anything you want in her. She is immortal.” – Roy Stryker. Photo by Dorothea...
View ArticleClik here to view.
UCSC’s Cowell Lime Works Historic District Part II: The Cardiff House
Built over 150 years ago for the A. P. Jordan family, this historic ranch house has seen many residents through the years. Courtesy Friends of the Cowell Lime Works Historic District. The House of Lime...
View ArticleClik here to view.
California: Beauty of Tectonic Proportions
Big Sur Coastline. Photo by David Iliff. Plate Tectonics California’s landscape is shaped in large part by plate tectonics, and in particular, the movement of the North American, Pacific, and Farallon...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Occupy Alcatraz: When the Red Power Movement Landed on Alcatraz
Northeast view of Alcatraz Island, 2013. Photo by William Warby. When many people think of Alcatraz, visions of a high security prison come to mind. For most of us, it’s that island in the shadow of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Santa Cruz’s Mission Hill: Farms of Yesteryear and the Streets of Today
An 1880s cottage on Towne Terrace. Before it was subdivided in the 1940s, the broad street now known as “Chrystal Terrace” was just narrow “Christal Lane” running from Mission Street to a farm house...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sir? Build me a Tower Please.
The Broadway Tower in Worcestershire, England. Photo by Phil Dolby. Does form always follow function? Not if the British have anything to say about it. Broadway Tower is a folly located on a hill in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Santa Cruz: The Walnut Avenue Stairs
The stairs along Walnut Avenue that go up to the top of Mission Hill at Towne Terrace. This retaining wall and stairs are one of the distinctive features of Walnut Avenue. The Pratchner family lived at...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Bucking the Trend: Mount St. Helens Grows a Glacier
Steam, gas and ash coming from the lava dome in Mount St. Helens in 1982. Photo courtesy USGS. The eruption of Mount St. Helens forever holds a place in the memories of many people across the nation....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Historic Lime Kilns of UCSC: The Continuous Kiln
The continuous lime kiln at UCSC. The finished lime was withdrawn from a small door at the bottom. Photo courtesy Friends of the Cowell Lime Works Historic District. Near the main entrance to the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
San Andreas and the Linear Lakes of California’s I-280
The 7.44 million people of the San Francisco Bay Area live surrounded by several large faults within the active San Andreas Fault System. Most of us who live here are very aware of this and are even...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Trees of West Cliff Drive: Native but not Natural
A picturesque lone Monterey pine near the end of De la Costa and Almar Avenues. This tree was planted here. The two tree types you mostly see along West Cliff Drive are the Monterey cypress (Cupressus...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Full Steam Ahead for New Hampshire’s Railroad
Steam Locomotive on Mount Washington Cog Railway. Photo by David Brossard. What do Thomas the Tank Engine, the Industrial Revolution, and little picky eaters all have in common? They owe their success...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Rincon Park was More Than a Median Strip
Only one block long, Rincon Street is home to Rincon Park. At the end of Rincon Street in Santa Cruz, California, is a small park which today looks mostly like a landscaped median strip. But in the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Monterey Bay’s Crazy Labor Day Horizon
A superior mirage along the coast of Monterey Bay as seen from Twin Lakes beach in Santa Cruz, California, mid-afternoon on September 7, 2015. If you happened to be looking out across Monterey Bay over...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Santa Cruz Boardwalk: A Walk Back in Time
The San Lorenzo River flows from the Santa Cruz mountains and enters the Monterey Bay beside the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. Photo courtesy and © of Chuck Perez, Slow Adventures. The San Lorenzo River...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Sandhills of Santa Cruz: There’s Shark Teeth Underneath
Photo courtesy and © Lauren McEvoy. I grew up right near the Sandhills of the Santa Cruz Mountains and often heard stories of people discovering prehistoric sand dollars and sharks teeth. I searched...
View Article
